After Christmas Food Thoughts

Though a repost from a year ago, my thoughts about food remain the same.  Life is hard; we need to treat ourselves from time to time without beating ourselves up about it.                                                             

It's nice in frigid January to remember summer blooms.

Fresh from Christmas I have a number of thoughts.  I wrote before about the various food indulgences that crept into the house during that time.  I should clarify that I do not think eating treats on special occasions or holidays is what makes us overweight.  They may tip us a bit but it is not the serving of stuffing or the gingerbread man wolfed down in the secrecy of our kitchens that make us fat.  Celebrations and treating our selves to something we enjoy is what makes life wonderful.  I mean how dispiriting would it be if you couldn't eat birthday cake.  I watched a fellow on t.v. explain how to swap out the traditional Thanksgiving fare for healthier choices; his dinner did not include stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes or pie.  I thought at that point, it just wasn't a Thanksgiving dinner anymore, so what would be the point.  

One of my grandmothers had a fondness for ice cream, especially a flavour called orange-pineapple.  I'm not sure if you can get that kind anymore.  She would treat herself with a bowl from time to time and always maintained a healthy weight.  Every summer when I stayed with her, we would go shopping and always stop in a local restaurant that served the best banana splits...the best in Gander, Newfoundland, anyway.  They came in their own custom glass dish and you ate them with a long spoon that I thought very elegant and special.  I loved this little tradition of ours. 

 Food, grandmothers, special occasions,  memories... just naturally go together, don't they?